Django Unchained a Shaft prequel? Really? There’s one more week of shooting on Django, and they just did scenes with Jonah Hill as a member of the Regulators (the pre-Civil War version of the KKK). Quentin Tarantino said it turned into one of the funniest scenes he’s ever done, which he says is up there with the name-colors conversation in Reservoir Dogs. There is one character in the movie that ties into the larger Tarantino-verse which he’s keeping a surprise, but he says Kerry Washington‘s character Brunhilde von Shaft is, in his mind, an ancestor of John Shaft – this prompted QT to start singing the theme song out loud. The panel was moderated by Anthony Breznican from Entertainment Weekly, who said he needed a whole new level of grandiloquent profanity to describe Django, a “twisted, bloody fairy tale,” before introducing Jamie Foxx, Walton Goggins, Don Johnson (with Jeff Bridges-looking facial hair and gray ponytail), Christoph Waltz (long hair and a bushy white beard that almost looks false, like Santa Claus), Washington, and Tarantino (in a leather jacket, dorky felt fedora, and a T-shirt depicting many of his characters as kids playing in a sandbox).Asked about historical accuracy (i.e. will there be anything like killing Hitler,) Tarantino said there was no need: the pre-Civil War South can’t be depicted as any scarier or more surreal than it was in real life. Django begins the story as an anonymous slave on a chain gang and becomes a cowboy and hero at the end. Foxx drew on experiences growing up in Texas, where he said he had “certain parallel experiences” to Django.

Waltz said he loved that Italians had taken the American genre of the western and made spaghetti westerns, and now American director Tarantino is appropriating their take on that genre. His character, a dentist named Dr. King Schulz, “doesn’t care about other white men.” He doesn’t “rescue” Django, but needs him.

Recent Comments

The marketing for this movie seems to have grown increasingly loud and desperate.

NYC

3 years

I wish he avoid period pieces and go back to a True Romance style setting and storyline....

frank

3 years

guess QT can expect a cease and desist lawyer from the people with the rights to Shaft.

Tarantino said he felt most westerns bend over backwards not to mention slavery, and placing western tropes in the antebellum South with a black character made it fresh for him.

The sizzle reel was put together with industry viewers in mind, (featuring only stuff from the first half of the movie, Tarantino noted). “If this is good enough for the industry, it’s good enough for the fans.” The audience predictably loved the exploding gushes of blood, gunshots, Johnny Cash music (possibly temp for the trailer, but let’s hope it’s not), Johnson decked out like Col. Sanders, Foxx shooting Mr. Friendly from Lost (Seriously, he looks exactly the same in this movie as he did on that show) in the chest saying “I like the way you die, boy,” the goofy giant tooth on a spring atop Waltz’ van, the bright blue suit worn by Foxx and mocked by slaves who can’t believe a free man would choose it, Foxx training as a gunslinger against a snowman, and wreaking righteous vengeance with a whip against one of the men who once tortured and branded him. Visually it felt perhaps closest to Kill Bill – which makes sense, since Kill Bill 2 was arguably Tarantino’s first go at incorporating the spaghetti western meme.

Goggins’ character was described as the kind of person Basil Rathbone used to play in swashbucklers, the “schemer who has the king’s ear.” Johnson got a big laugh when he said he worked on his Big Daddy accent by studying Foghorn Leghorn. It turns out Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t in the movie after all, but Quentin still wants to work with him on something. Answering the inevitable fan question, Tarantino said he has no idea what his next movie will be.

14 Comments

Incredulous • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

I really hope this stupid movie tanks…

Django Unchained • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

You are what’s wrong with movies. Go see Battleship or John Carter. Django is strikingly original and very ambitious and daring. Obviously you don’t have the intelligence to appreciate a movie like this.

woodrow • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

how do you know if it’s stupid? you have not yet seen it.

Johnny Ringo • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

Do trolls get the children’s discount?

Your Name • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

I thought Kill Bill Vol. 3 was his next film.

100stones3x • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

I wish he’d revisit the PULP FICTION universe. You don’t even have to make it a sequel/prequel. The gonzo world which he and Roger Avery created is fascinating and could easily be home to many other fun characters and story lines.

Kendall • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

Read the script and thought it was AWESOME! QT sets the bar pretty high for anyone else thinking of depicting this time period. Can’t wait to see it on screen.

guy • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

QT looks like Randy Quaid in Kingpin

Jk500 • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

I’m all for the idiotic South getting shown the reality of its horrible past. Go, QT!

justified • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

I’m just geeked that Boyd Crowder is in this motherfucker.

KGB • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

I want that shirt that Qt has on…..bad.

frank • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

guess QT can expect a cease and desist lawyer from the people with the rights to Shaft.

NYC • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

I wish he avoid period pieces and go back to a True Romance style setting and storyline. Something that is authentic to QT. The best writing can and is true is in his case, comes from what you know and have experienced.

Donella • on Jul 14, 2012 1:42 pm

The marketing for this movie seems to have grown increasingly loud and desperate.